Winter Comfort Food

Discussion in 'Food & Drinks' started by Mal Campbell, Feb 18, 2015.

  1. Mal Campbell

    Mal Campbell Supreme Member
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    Well, what a perfectly miserable day - it's 20 degrees outside, bitterly cold and windy. Yesterday, we got a lot of ice and sleet, today a little snow. So what do you cook on these cold winter days for comfort?

    While I do enjoy soups and chili, for comfort food I actually like to bake. I hate to admit it, but my favorite on a day like today is good old fashioned Nestle's Toll House cookies. I love to add a few things in addition to the chocolate chips - like coconut, butterscotch chips and dried cranberries. I think I fall back on these because, as a kid, this is what me and my mother would do on days when school was cancelled. It reminds me of my childhood.
     
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  2. Richard Paradon

    Richard Paradon Supreme Member
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    Today is windy and cold! I don't think anybody is really going to feel sorry for me, but it it is presently 26c or 78f! It usually is about 29c or 85f! Now do you feel sorry for me? That's what I thought!

    I saw one of my neighbors going to the market so I immediately put on a "hoody" and in my most pathetic broken Thai, told her that I was soon going to see the Buddha (not polite to use the word die) because it was so cold and would she mind picking up some hot food for me. As I mentioned on a different post, it is not bad being old in this country!

    Soon she came back and she had a bag full of steamed rice and chicken in a spicy sourish curry. It is so delicious and I now feel as if I may make it through this cold spell!


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  3. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    It's cold and windy and the sun is shining....it is a beautiful day to be inside.

    One of my favorite comfort foods during the winter months is ham and beans and a big chunk of buttery cornbread...yum yum. I buy a ham shank and a bag on northern great beans and cook them slow in a pot like my mom use to do. Then get my cast iron skillet oiled lightly and pour the cornbread mixture in and wait. Of course the cornbread in ready before the ham and beans are so I often cut me a piece as an appetizer.

    After my meal I curl up in a blanket and watch a movie or the movie is watching me.:D
     
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  4. Mal Campbell

    Mal Campbell Supreme Member
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    Sorry to show my ignorance, but where you are in Africa, is it hot all the time, or are your seasons just backwards from ours? I have a pen pal who lives in Australia, and her seasons are different - and it's so funny to hear her talk about gardening in January, and shoveling snow in July. It's one of those concepts that I understand intellectually, but just can't wrap my head around. I mean, she eats fresh veggies from her garden on Christmas Day!
     
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  5. Richard Paradon

    Richard Paradon Supreme Member
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    Hi Mal! I live in Thailand. We have two seasons, summer and rainy season (about 3 months) but it is usually warm!
     
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  6. Pat Baker

    Pat Baker Supreme Member
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    Cold, windy and snow. We are about 30 degrees lower than normal. I like to make cookies or muffins when I start to feel the walls closing in on me. Chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies, President's day school was closed I made a dozen and half of cranberry muffins. The boys ate them all by the end of the day the must have been good.
     
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  7. Krissttina Isobe

    Krissttina Isobe Veteran Member
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    :oops:Living in the tropics Hawaii's winters are cold and rainy. So when we are home we make saimin or ramen. We use noodles we buy at the store and make our own soup base usually of fish stock. Then we add our condiments like thinly sliced spam or if we have Chinese red roast pork we'd cut it up thinly too, green onions, egg omelet cut up in thin strips added to the saimin. We like it on winter wet days in Hawaii. Sometimes we'd just open our instant saimin and chow down too.
     
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  8. Jenn Windey

    Jenn Windey Supreme Member
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    Ironic to be talking about the cold weather, usually like a little squirrel we would be starting to eat the foods that bulk us up to prepare for the snow. It has been so hot as of late that I just really do not feel like eating that much at all. Today was close to 80 degree's. Yesterday was the first time since winter that I even felt like I might want a cup of tea. Truthfully I suspect I am fighting off a sinus infection and that it is just making me not want to eat. The evenings are in about the 50 degree range with the mornings a wee bit colder, but the day has been heating up quite a bit.

    In the winter pasta is important, along with potato and meat. I also really enjoy Polish food like sausage and pierogi. In our home Pizza has always been a mainstay, as is any meat with rice and vegetable. I tend to like soup a lot and will make soup on the weekends if I have enough vegetables and chicken. I also really like homemade pot pies. usually by the end of September I have frozen lot's of squash and we have apples in just about every fashion imaginable. So far it is as if the summer has slowed down, the apples are starting but not quite as good as usual. I did see some pumpkin and very small amounts of squash. The Fall veggies are just not ready yet. I am okay with that actually, since last winter was so rough.
     
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  9. Sheldon Scott

    Sheldon Scott Supreme Member
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    We had a cool spell about a week ago that got me thinking of fall. Raking leaves helped with that feeling. So, I bought some pinto beans and the ingredients for some chili. Now it's warmed up again so the beans and chili might wait awhile.

    Our usual method is to make a big pot of pinto beans first. We'll have beans & cornbread, usually with ham or sausage, for a meal or two then we'll make chili, adding the leftover beans.
     
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  10. Corie Henson

    Corie Henson Veteran Member
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    We have no winter and the parallel that I can use is the rainy season. When it rains without letup for consecutive days, the atmosphere is gloomy and moods are not good. In our house, that is reason enough to clamor for comfort food for the rainy season. One of the favorites is the beef porridge where the beef is supposed to be tenderized by slow fire - but we use the pressure cooker for that to lessen the work. The trick is the seasoning and the side dish. The plain flavor of porridge with beef is enhanced with the sauteed garlic, onion and fish sauce. For more seasoning, there is the fried golden brown crushed garlic, shredded spring onions and lemon drops.

    The side dish for the beef porridge is fried tofu that is crisp mixed with boiled pork belly slices. It is flavored with a dip made of soy sauce and vinegar plus flavorings. So when there is a gloomy atmosphere, we perk it up with one of our comfort food - beef porridge.
     
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  11. Ike Willis

    Ike Willis Supreme Member
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    Pea soup with ham and anything else I can cram in. Pieces of potato, carrot, chopped onion, barley, celery, always garlic in everything. I like soup thick, never watery.

    If no pea soup is available, bean soup will work, with the same ingredients.
     
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  12. Diane Lane

    Diane Lane Veteran Member
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    I also tend to do more cooking in the colder weather, often soups and heavier meals like chili or beef stew. Cooking in the Fall and Winter are nice, because the house is cooler, so the heat from the stove is welcome. This time of year is also when I pull my crock pot out of storage and put it to use. Here's a Crockpot Chocolate Lava Cake recipe in case anyone would like to try making it. https://www.facebook.com/buzzfeedtasty/videos/1645634399022536/?pnref=story
     

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